BIOMES:

Rivers and Streams Plants and Animals:

Algae Green plants Hydrilla Catail Trout Catfish Carp

Tundra Animals and Plants

Arctic Fox, Polar Bear, Caribou Arctic Willow and Moss and Bearberry

Taiga Animals

Animals of the taiga tend to be predators like the lynx and members of the weasel family like wolverines, bobcat, minks and ermine. They hunt herbivores like snowshoe rabbits, red squirrels and voles. Red deer, elk, and moose can be found in regions of the taiga where more deciduous trees grow.

Estuaries

Are bodies of water found in areas where freshwater from rivers and streams and salt water from the ocean meet. HIGH SALINITY fluctuatin emp temp

Rain Forest Plants:

Bengal Bamboo, Durian, Mangrove Forests, Strangler Figs

Coniferous deciduous

Coniferous trees are often referred to as evergreens and with needles, and the name is associated with trees that have needles instead of broad, flat leaves. Deciduous refers to any tree that drops its leaves in the fall and goes dormant during cold weather.

Deserts

Deserts cover about one fifth of the Earth's surface and occur where rainfall is less than 50 cm/year. HOT AND DRY DESERTS: The seasons are generally warm throughout the year and very hot in the summer. The winters usually bring little rainfall. TEMP usually 68F can be up to 109 F. Rainfall is usually very low and/or concentrated in short bursts between long rainless periods.

Ponds and Lakes (Plants and Animals)

Duckweed Plankton Clams Insects Plankton Crustaceans Dragonflies

Grasslands:

Grassland biomes are large, rolling terrains of grasses, flowers and herbs. grassland is a region where the average annual precipitation is great enough to support grasses, and in some areas a few trees. Temperatures vary more from summer to winter, and the amount of rainfall is less in temperate grasslands than in savannas. The major manifestations are the veldts of South Africa, the puszta of Hungary, the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay, the steppes of the former Soviet Union, and the plains and prairies of central North America. Temperate grasslands have hot summers and cold winters. Rainfall is moderate.

eutrophic lake

Has a large supply of nutrients needed by producers; typically shallow; have murky green water with high turbidity; high NPP algae supplies oxygen with photosynthesis

Grassland: temps

In the winter, grassland temperatures can be as low as -40° F, and in the summer it can be as high 70° F. There are two real seasons: a growing season and a dormant season. The growing season is when there is no frost and plants can grow (which lasts from 100 to 175 days). During the dormant (not growing) season nothing can grow because its too cold.

Chaparral

Lay of the land: The chaparral biome has many different types of terrain. Some examples are flat plains, rocky hills and mountain slopes. It is sometimes used in movies for the "Wild West".Chaparral is characterized as being very hot and dry. As for the temperature, the winter is very mild and is usually about 10 °C. Then there is the summer. It is so hot and dry at 40 °C that fires and droughts are very common.

Chaparral Plants and Animals

Most of the plants have small, hard leaves which hold moisture. Some of these plants are poison oak, scrub oak, Yucca Wiple and other shrubs, trees and cacti. The animals are all mainly grassland and desert types adapted to hot, dry weather. A few examples: coyotes, jack rabbits, mule deer, alligator lizards, horned toads, praying mantis, honey bee and ladybugs.

Rain Forest Animals:

The Amazon river basin rainforest contains a wider variety of plant and animal life than any other biome in the world. African Forest Elephant, Bengal Tiger, Chimpanzee, Orangutan

Deciduous Temperature:

The average annual temperature in a deciduous forest is 50° F. The average rainfall is 30 to 60 inches a year.The deciduous forest has four distinct seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. In the autumn the leaves change color. During the winter months the trees lose their leaves.

Taiga Description:

The taiga is the biome of the needleleaf forest. Living in the taiga is cold and lonely. Some of the animals in the taiga hibernate in the winter, some fly south if they can, while some just cooperate with the environment, which is very difficult. largest biome in the world. It stretches over Eurasia and North America. The taiga is located near the top of the world, just below the tundra biome.The winters in the taiga are very cold with only snowfall. The summers are warm, rainy, and humid. A lot of coniferous trees grow in the taiga. The taiga is also known as the boreal forest. Temperatures are very low. Precipitation is primarily in the form of snow, 40-100 cm annually. Soil is thin, nutrient-poor, and acidic. Canopy permits low light penetration, and as a result, understory is limited. Flora consist mostly of cold-tolerant evergreen conifers with needle-like leaves, such as pine, fir, and spruce. Fauna include woodpeckers, hawks, moose, bear, weasel, lynx, fox, wolf, deer, hares, chipmunks, shrews, and bats.

Taiga Plants

There are not a lot of species of plants in the taiga because of the harsh conditions. Not many plants can survive the extreme cold of the taiga winter. There are some lichens and mosses, but most plants are coniferous trees like pine, white spruce, hemlock and douglas fir.

Alpine Plants and Animals:

There are only warm blooded animals in the Alpine biome, although there are insects. Alpine animals adapt to the cold by hibernating, migrating to lower, warmer areas, or insulating their bodies with layers of fat. Animals will also tend to have shorter legs, tails, and ears, in order to reduce heat loss ALPACA LLAMA SNOW LEOPARD

Deciduous Plants:

Trees are distinguished by broad leaves that are lost annually and include such species as oak, hickory, beech, hemlock, maple, basswood, cottonwood, elm, willow, and spring-flowering herbs.

wetland

can be salt or fresh reservoir to prevent flooding can be coastal inland greatest animal diversity

oligotrophic lake

lake with low primary productivity low nutrient content low algal production clear water high drinking quality high in oxygen so at bottom support many fish species

Estuaries Plants and Animals

marshes and grasses mangrove tree algae macroflora seaweed worms oysters crab

kelp forest

most productive ecosystems formed by brown algae part of neuritic zone

Deciduous Animals:

squirrels, rabbits, skunks, birds, deer, mountain lion, bobcat, timber wolf, fox, and black bear.

Ponds and Lakes

Many ponds are seasonal, lasting just a couple of months (such as sessile pools) while lakes may exist for hundreds of years or more. Ponds and lakes may have limited species diversity since they are often isolated from one another and from other water sources like rivers and oceans. Lakes and ponds are divided into three different "zones" which are usually determined by depth and distance from the shoreline.

Savanna Animals/Plants

Other animals (which do not all occur in the same savanna) include giraffes, zebras, buffaloes, kangaroos, mice, moles, gophers, ground squirrels, snakes, worms, termites, beetles, lions, leopards, hyenas, and elephants.Savannas have warm temperature year round.

Wetlands (Plants and Animals)

Salt Grass Salt Marsh Sea Labemmder Switchen Grass Amphibians repitiles bruds ducks shellfish

Savannas

Savanna is grassland with scattered individual trees. Savannas of one sort or another cover almost half the surface of Africa (about five million square miles, generally central Africa) and large areas of Australia, South America, and India. Climate is the most important factor in creating a savanna. Savannas are always found in warm or hot climates where the annual rainfall is from about 50.8 to 127 cm (20-50 inches) per year. It is crucial that the rainfall is concentrated in six or eight months of the year, followed by a long period of drought when fires can occur.In the summer there is lots of rain. In Africa the monsoon rains begin in May. An average of 15 to 25 inches of rain falls during this time. It gets hot and very humid during the rainy season.

Taigia Abiotic Factors

Seasons are divided into short, moist, and moderately warm summers and long, cold, and dry winters. Here is some information about the temperatures and weather in the taiga. The average temperature is below freezing for six months out of the year. The winter temperature range is -54 to -1° C (-65 to 30° F). The winters, as you can see, are really cold, with lots of snow. Temperature range in the summer gets as low as -7° C (20° F). The high in summer can be 21° C (70° F). The summers are mostly warm, rainy and humid. They are also very short with about 50 to 100 frost free days. The total precipitation in a year is 30 - 85 cm (12 - 33 in) .

Tundra Temperature and seasons

The average winter temperature is -34° C (-30° F), but the average summer temperature is 3-12° C (37-54° F) Yearly precipitation, including melting snow, is 15 to 25 cm (6 to 10 inches). The main seasons are winter and summer. In the winter it is cold and dark and in the summer, when the snow and the top layer of permafrost melt, it is very soggy and the tundra is covered with marshes, lakes, bogs and streams that breed thousands of insects and attract many migrating birds.

Grassland Plants and Animals:

The fauna (which do not all occur in the same temperate grassland) include gazelles, zebras, rhinoceroses, wild horses, lions, wolves, prairie dogs, jack rabbits, deer, mice, coyotes, foxes, skunks, badgers, blackbirds, grouses, meadowlarks, quails, sparrows, hawks, owls, snakes, grasshoppers, leafhoppers, and spiders.They include blue grama and buffalo grass, cacti, sagebrush, speargrass, and small relatives of the sunflower.

Rain Forest Temperature:

The temperature in a rain forest rarely gets higher than 93 °F (34 °C) or drops below 68 °F (20 °C); average humidity is between 77 and 88%; rainfall is often more than 100 inches a year.

Rain Forest Description:

The tropical rain forest is a forest of tall trees in a region of year-round warmth. An average of 50 to 260 inches (125 to 660 cm.) of rain falls A tropical rain forest has more kinds of trees than any other area in the world. yearly.belong to the tropical wet climate group. produce 40% of Earth's oxygen.Almost all rain forests lie near the equator. There are four very distinct layers of trees in a tropical rain forest. These layers have been identified as the emergent, upper canopy, understory, and forest floor.

Tundra Description:

The tundra is the world's coldest and driest biomes. North, the tundra is a vast and treeless land which covers about 20% of the Earth's surface, circumnavigating the North pole. It is usually very cold, and the land is pretty stark.The ground is permanently frozen 10 inches to 3 feet (25 to 100 cm) down so that trees can't grow there Almost all tundras are located in the Northern Hemisphere.. Small tundra-like areas do exist in Antarctica in the Southern Hemisphere, but because it is much colder than the Arctic, the ground is always covered with snow and ice. Conditions are not right for a true tundra to form. Extremely cold climate Low biotic diversity Simple vegetation structure Limitation of drainage Short season of growth and reproduction Energy and nutrients in the form of dead organic material Large population oscillations

Desert Animals:

There are relatively few large mammals in deserts because most are not capable of storing sufficient water and withstanding the heat. Deserts often provide little shelter from the sun for large animals. The dominant animals of warm deserts are nonmammalian vertebrates, such as reptiles. Mammals are usually small, like the kangaroo mice of North American deserts.

Cold Deserts:

These deserts are characterized by cold winters with snowfall and high overall rainfall throughout the winter and occasionally over the summer. The winters receive quite a bit of snow. The mean annual precipitation ranges from 15-26 cm. The soil is heavy, silty, and salty. Animals: The burrowing habit also applies to carnivores like the badger, kit fox, and coyote. Several lizards do some burrowing and moving of soil. Deer are found only in the winter.

Temperate/Deciduous Forest

Well-defined seasons with a distinct winter characterize this forest biome. Moderate climate and a growing season of 140-200 days during 4-6 frost-free months distinguish temperate forests Precipitation (75-150 cm) is distributed evenly throughout the year. Soil is fertile, enriched with decaying litter. Canopy is moderately dense and allows light to penetrate, resulting in well-developed and richly diversified understory vegetation and stratification of animals. Flora is characterized by 3-4 tree species per square kilometer. Trees are distinguished by broad leaves that are lost annually and include such species as oak, hickory, beech, hemlock, maple, basswood, cottonwood, elm, willow, and spring-flowering herbs. Fauna is represented by squirrels, rabbits, skunks, birds, deer, mountain lion, bobcat, timber wolf, fox, and black bear.

Wetlands

Wetlands are areas of standing water that support aquatic plants. Marshes, swamps, and bogs are all considered wetlands. Plant species adapted to the very moist and humid conditions are called hydrophytes.Wetlands have the highest species diversity of all ecosystems. Many species of amphibians, reptiles, birds (such as ducks and waders), and furbearers can be found in the wetlands. Wetlands are not considered freshwater ecosystems as there are some, such as salt marshes, that have high salt concentrations — these support different species of animals, such as shrimp, shellfish, and various grasses.

Alpine

cold, snowy, windy. When you hear those words they make you think of mountains. The Alpine biome is like winter is to people in New England; snow, high winds, ice, all the typical winter things. In Latin the word for 'high mountain' is 'alpes'. That is where today's word alpine comes from. In the summer average temperatures range from 10 to 15° C . In the winter the temperatures are below freezing. Alpine biomes are found in the mountain regions all around the world. They are usually at an altitude of about 10,000 feet or more. The Alpine biome lies just below the snow line of a mountain.

Rivers and Streams

they get their starts at headwaters, which may be springs, snowmelt or even lakes, and then travel all the way to their mouths, usually another water channel or the ocean. The characteristics of a river or stream change during the journey from the source to the mouth. The temperature is cooler at the source than it is at the mouth. The water is also clearer, has higher oxygen levels, and freshwater fish such as trout and heterotrophs can be found there. Towards the middle part of the stream/river, the width increases, as does species diversity — numerous aquatic green plants and algae can be found. Toward the mouth of the river/stream, the water becomes murky from all the sediments that it has picked up upstream, decreasing the amount of light that can penetrate through the water. Since there is less light, there is less diversity of flora, and because of the lower oxygen levels, fish that require less oxygen, such as catfish and carp, can be found.